Health at School Project - Salesiano Jacarezinho 2024

Colégio Salesiano Alberto Monteiro De Carvalho in Jacarezinho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil gives us a report of the Health at School Project - medicine collection point held in their college.

The overall aim of the project is to raise awareness among students and their families about the care of medicines, so that they are made aware of disposal and socio-environmental impacts. When this is done incorrectly, it can cause various socio-environmental impacts, such as:

a) pollution of water resources;

b) soil contamination;

c) damage to people's health and quality of life;

d) imbalances in biodiversity.

 According to VWP Sila, 2022, the main causes of the improper disposal of medicines over time have been related to the population's lack of information about the proper final destination of this waste, the lack of supervision, the need for public policies to train staff and resources to make proper disposal possible, as well as an adequate sanitary structure to receive this waste.

 In order to provide more appropriate disposal, on June 5, 2020, Decree No. 10.388 was published in Brazil, establishing the reverse logistics system for expired or unused household medicines. The document provides for collection points in drugstores and pharmacies for the disposal of these medicines, which are considered the primary storage of this waste (VWP Silva 2022).

 In the Jacaré Complex, the lack of basic sanitation is a major problem for the 75,000 people who live in Jacarezinho and Manguinhos, in the suburbs of Rio. In the community we found, the Jacaré River is full of garbage and sewage. Everything that is no longer useful is thrown into the waters that cut through the Jacarezinho community, causing various socio-environmental problems

 Based on this scenario, the project aims to set up a drug collection and disposal point in the Jacarezinho slum; as well as raising socio-environmental awareness of the problem in question, together with the Colégio Salesiano Jacarezinho.

 Objectives-

To raise awareness among the population about the environmental impacts of improper disposal of medicines;

Set up a collection point for expired and unexpired packaging and medicines;

Articulate and create partnerships with local pharmacies for reverse logistics;

Revitalizing the Green Schoolyard.

Implementation of a Farmácia Viva Pedagógica at the school.

 Students dispose of the box, the package leaflet, expired medicines and medicines that have expired but are no longer used.